Bush/Cheney Released 171 From Gitmo Who Went Back Into Battle; Obama/Biden: 7
Guantanamo isn’t full of choirboys. The difference between the Bush releases and the Obama releases, is we got something in return for five of the Obama releases: an American soldier.
…by the time Obama took office, according to a report from the office of the director of National Intelligence last year, the Bush-Cheney administration had released 171 detainees, either confirmed or suspected of having returned to the battlefield.
These include, according to the Defense Intelligence Agency, Ibrahim Sen, who was later arrested in Turkey charged as the leader of an active al Qaeda cell, and Abdullah Mahsud, whom Pakistan government officials accuse of directing a suicide attack in April 2007 that killed 31 people.
Under the Obama administration, which claims to have a more thorough vetting process for releasing detainees, seven were confirmed or suspected of having returned to the battle as of last September.
Alan Porcella June 10th, 2014 at 4:42 pm
That doesn’t matter to Republicans. They don’t care what Bush/Cheney did, they only care about what Obama does, and they never talk about things that are positive, they only twist things into negatives. It’s not surprising then, that they tried to credit the killing of Osama Bin Laden to the policies of George W. Bush, while at the same time, they saw nothing about the economy that could possibly have had anything to do with the policies of George W. Bush.
Denial is a required attribute for today’s Republican
Debra Watkins June 10th, 2014 at 5:45 pm
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/03/washington/03gitmo.html?_r=0
fancypants June 10th, 2014 at 10:37 pm
why would the bush admin bother with our economy when there was an undeclared war to run. Todays republicans are all about how to run oil from Canada to texas as quiet as possible so they can sell it to china or the highest bidder and their WILL be jobs created as long as your willing to play the game and keep your mouth shut.
Debra Watkins June 10th, 2014 at 5:37 pm
WASHINGTON – A group of 145 members of the House of Representatives sent a letter to President Bush on Friday urging him to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and move the detainees there to military prisons in the United States.
The closure of the detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay would represent a positive first step toward restoring our international reputation as the leader of democracy and individual rights, the letter said.
The House members, all but one of them Democrats, also called for restoring Guantanamo prisoners right to challenge their detention in court. This will allow for the implementation of fair and transparent trials to bring enemies of our country to justice, they wrote. The lone Republican was Rep. Walter Jones of North Carolina.
White House spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore said the letter was received and noted that Bush has said he wants to close Guantanamo. A number of steps need to take place before that can happen, and were continuing to work on those, she said.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said Friday that the biggest challenge was finding a legal basis for holding prisoners who shouldnt be released because theyre dangerous but might not be able to be put on trial because evidence against them fell short of what trial courts required.
The Supreme Court agreed Friday to review whether the detainees should be able to go to federal court to challenge their confinement. Congress passed a law last year that removed the ability of courts to hear detainees challenges. Under the law, the detainees receive hearings before a Combatant Status Review Tribunal, which determines whether theyre enemy combatants. The hearings allow the government to use evidence that is secret or obtained by coercive interrogation methods.
Larry Cox, the director of the human-rights group Amnesty International, said in a statement Thursday that the detainees should be tried in federal courts. He said the military commissions system was a made-up judicial structure lacking fundamental due process protections.
The White House has been considering closing the prison at Guantanamo and transferring the detainees. About 375 prisoners are at the facility, and many of them have been there for more than five years. Few have been charged with crimes. Most are held because theyve been determined to be security threats to the United States.
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2007/06/29/17486/congress-letter-to-bush-close.html#storylink=cpy
Catafalque_1 June 10th, 2014 at 8:33 pm
The source for this quote?
Debra Watkins June 11th, 2014 at 1:14 pm
It’s at the bottom of the quote.
. June 11th, 2014 at 11:09 pm
Thank you. I appreciate the reply.
fancypants June 10th, 2014 at 9:44 pm
why bother with gitmo prisoners when gwb & cheney still cant justify the war that started in Iraq. somewhat of a moot point by now
Shades June 10th, 2014 at 9:44 pm
But … BENGHAZI!!
Debra Watkins June 11th, 2014 at 1:17 pm
This was happening oh, so long ago….GITMO goes on….
Published: July 3, 2007
WASHINGTON, July 2 — Seeking a legal path to shutting down theGuantánamo detention facility, senior advisers to President Bush are exploring whether the White House and Congress can agree to legislation that would permit the long-term detention of foreign terrorism suspects on American soil, Pentagon and administration officials say.
The idea of creating a new legal category for some foreign terrorism detainees, which is still in its early stages, faces daunting political, legal and constitutional difficulties. But it is gaining support among some White House and national security officials as the most promising course to allow the president to close the site at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, that has generated intense criticism at home and abroad.
Essentially, the administration would propose legislation that would result in dividing the estimated 375 Guantánamo detainees into three legal categories. The one that would call for legislative action would include detainees like Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the September 2001 attacks, and others whose trials would risk exposing intelligence operations. This group, estimated at two dozen to 50, would be placed indefinitely in military brigs on American soil.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/03/washington/03gitmo.html?_r=0